The Shiner St. Paul Cardinals, more or less, dominated Marble Falls Faith Academy, 62-7,
Friday night in the TAPPS IV bi-district round at Comanche Stadium but were not without
some errors.

"The score does not always indicate how you played," Cardinals head coach Jake Wachmuth
said. "We were sloppy at times but bottom line this is the time of the season where you
just want to win and get to the next round."

St. Paul had solid effort but was not as intense and focused at times. "Early on, we
were very confident we were going to win and probably had a little letdown in intensity
which is not uncommon. You start to do things halfway," he said. "I am not taking
anything away from Marble Falls Faith players. I preach to our kids that you play hard
against every single opponent because you want to play the best you can. We put it in
the sense that God has given you this ability and you should use it to your best all the
time."

The Cardinals led 27-0 after one quarter and scored 35 points in the second quarter,
paving the way for younger players to get some repetition in a playoff game.

"A lot of kids got to play and that is a good thing," Wacsmuth said.

With St. Paul way ahead on the scoreboard, the Flames left in their starters to try to
get back in the contest, providing a challenge for the Cardinal reserves.

Wachsmuth said the younger players held their own against Marble Falls Faith's first
string.

"I thought our young guys competed hard. We had a couple of nice pops. They work hard at
practice," he said.

The Cardinals started producing points seconds into the contest when Conor Kresta ripped
the ball out of the hands of Flames quarterback Garrett Henderson near the Marble Falls
Faith 45 and took it all the way to the end zone

Less than two minutes later, St. Paul scored on the offensive side with a 65-yard
touchdown run by Austin Barton on a single-play drive.

The Flames stalled on their next drive and failed to convert a fourth down at their 39.
It was a six-play, 61-yard drive by St. Paul, ending on a 5-yard run by Kresta to give
the Cardinals a 20-0 advantage.

With 3:49 left in the first, St. Paul had a 62-yard march with Joseph Natal getting a
46-yard run as the key play and Tre'Zell Jenkins-Perry capping the drive with a 10-yard run.

St. Paul took a 34-0 lead five seconds into the second frame on a 2-yard run by Barton.

The Cardinals defense gifted their offense good field position at the Flame 29. Jenkins-
Perry had a short gain to the 26 and then scored.

Marble Falls Faith tried another fourthdown conversion, this time faking a punt but only
got 7 yards on a fourth-and-15 play, giving St. Paul the ball at the plus-21. Three
plays later, it was a 4-yard run by Kresta.

The Cardinals had two more scores before halftime — an 87-yard run by Kresta at the 4:08
mark and backup quarterback River Haynes scored on a 5-yard sneak play after the Flames
had a high snap on a punt attempt.

With a running clock in the second half, Marble Falls Faith battled and battled to get
something positive. They did with 90 seconds left in the game on the 1-yard run by
Kameron Ellenberger.

St. Paul will play Beaumont Legacy in the second round at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow
( Friday, November 18, 2016 ) at Warrior Stadium in the Woodlands, home of
Woodlands Christian.